🇺🇸 CHICAGO CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL STOPS GIVING PUBERTY BLOCKERS TO KIDS
Big shift at Chicago's Lurie Children's Hospital.
They're pausing new prescriptions for gender-affirming meds like hormones and puberty blockers to patients under 18 who haven't been treated there before.
Not out of pure kindness, mind you, that's all on HHS.
They already dialed back surgeries for minors last year.
HHS says these treatments risk permanent harm, and the hospital is waiting on federal court rulings.
Source: CBS News, WBEZ, Chicago Tribune, @libsoftiktok
🇨🇳🇷🇺 CHINA AND RUSSIA JUST SENT A MESSAGE TO THE WORLD - AND THEY DID IT ON AMERICA’S WATCH
While a U.S. envoy met with Putin in Moscow this week, something else was happening, something bigger, more symbolic, and possibly more dangerous.
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, was in Moscow too. And he wasn’t there for ceremony. He was there for “strategic security and military cooperation” talks with Russia’s most powerful defense and foreign policy officials. It was the 20th round of these high-level consultations, a number that reflects not just routine coordination, but a sustained and growing alliance.
And the timing? Not accidental.
The same day Wang met with Sergei Shoigu and FM Lavrov, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were preparing for their own meeting with Putin. Wang even acknowledged it, telling Lavrov it was a “particularly busy, tense and significant day” for Russia.
Translation: China knew exactly what it was doing ,and wanted the world to see it.
In a global moment defined by shifting alliances, this wasn’t just another diplomatic handshake. It was a clear display of Beijing and Moscow’s growing alignment on defense, intelligence, and global strategy, with America quite literally in the next room.
Just 24 hours earlier, Putin had signed a decree waiving visas for Chinese citizens, a reciprocal move to Beijing’s earlier gesture. On the surface, that’s tourism and commerce. But underneath, it’s about access, mobility, and infrastructure that supports long-term strategic partnership, not just friendship.
The joint statement after the meeting was even more revealing. China and Russia vowed to “consolidate strategic mutual trust,” “expand mutually beneficial cooperation,” and “jointly respond to the endless new threats and challenges.” That’s diplomatic code for: We’re in this together, and the West should take notice.
And they should.
This alignment isn’t just about Ukraine or Taiwan, though both are crucial battlegrounds in the global order. It’s about building a multipolar world where U.S. influence is diluted and where authoritarian states coordinate to resist Western pressure, militarily, economically, and ideologically.
Meanwhile, the Russian FM stated that “considerable attention” was given to ending the war in Ukraine ,on Russia’s terms, of course. China, for its part, continues to deny accusations that it’s supplying Russia with weapons, intelligence, or equipment, but Kyiv sees the reality on the ground differently.
Whether Beijing is directly aiding Moscow or simply enabling it through diplomacy and dual-use exports, the effect is the same: China is helping Russia endure and adapt.
That should concern Washington, and Europe, deeply.
What this week revealed is that Moscow and Beijing are increasingly acting in sync, even as the U.S. tries to manage each of them separately. These aren't isolated rivals anymore. They're partners, and they’re planning for a world without American dominance.
The U.S. may still be at the table. But the map is shifting, and others are drawing the lines.
Source: Kyiv Post
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Good point @EleanorTerrett
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